But, as has plagued the team all year, LHS runners were able to get in scoring position, but the Crusaders just couldn’t come up with the big hit to push them across the plate.

“Overall, I thought the kids played fairly well,” Lane said. “I thought we made a couple mistakes that hurt us.”

Sophomore Jack Chmielewski started on the mound for LHS, but was pulled fairly early due to a sore arm that was affecting his control.

“He kind of ran out of gas early,” Lane said. “But he’s got a good career ahead of him, we didn’t want to burn him out.”

Senior Joel Burfeind closed for the Crusaders and took the loss once the Stars posted their fourth run.

“He kind of got saddled with the loss, but actually threw pretty well,” Lane said, adding that Burfeind always stepped up for the team and was able to throw strikes. “He was always willing and able to do that.”

Lane said as much as the team would have liked to have won the Southwest game, the Crusaders would have been in “big trouble” in the next round.

“We would have loved to have won that, but we were kind of strapped pitching wise,” he said.